Wall Street will comb the Fed's June minutes for the answer to one key question

The Minneapolis Fed's president, Neel Kashkari, during an interview at Reuters in New York. Thomson Reuters

Does Neel Kashkari have any friends at the Federal Reserve?

Put more diplomatically: Does the Minneapolis Fed president have any dovish allies on the Fed's Open Market Committee who are skeptical of further interest-rate increases, or is he all alone in dissenting against more hikes this year?

That's the main question investors will be looking to answer as they rifle through minutes from the central bank's June meeting, due out Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET.

His reasoning is sound: "We don't yet know if that drop in inflation is transitory," he said in a post justifying his dissent.

Andy Kiersz/Business Insider

Given all the hawkish talk from the central bank lately, Kashkari may continue to be quietly ignored by his FOMC peers. Fed Chair Janet Yellen has indicated a high hurdle to knock the Fed off its tightening path, while other policymakers say they are worried the unemployment rate might fall too quickly — whatever that means.

Some background on the Fed's hawk-dove spectrum is instructive. Economists rank officials according to their tolerance for inflation. Those willing to accept a little more of it to try to boost employment further are called doves; policymakers who tend to be fearful of price spikes are dubbed hawks.

But it's telling that the hawk-dove divide, which shifts over time along with the economy, is defined by only the inflation side of the Fed's dual mandate and not by its other goal of maximum employment.

He's not alone, however. While once dovish officials like the Boston Fed's president, Eric Rosengren, and the Chicago Fed's president, Charles Evans, have changed their minds of late, others seem more in tune with Kashkari.

The Philadelphia Fed's president, Patrick Harker, said on June 27 that the central bank may have to reconsider its rate-hike plans if inflation kept falling.

Outside the central bank, a growing chorus of prominent economists is also calling for the Fed to explore new ways to stimulate economic growth given shifting global conditions. One idea is to raise the inflation target in a way that would allow the central bank to be more aggressive in future recessions.